


it's a long road we've been walking on

by badritual



Series: Exchange Fic [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, the Force works in mysterious ways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22426927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badritual/pseuds/badritual
Summary: The Force sings to her, as if the universe is rejoicing in her return.Ahsoka must have been sent back for a reason.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Exchange Fic [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1705675
Comments: 8
Kudos: 86
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2019





	it's a long road we've been walking on

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/gifts).



> Written for LittleRaven for past_imperfect.
> 
> ❤️to my beta.

When the last Skywalker draws his final breath, the Force spits Ahsoka up like a fussy child. The ground is hard and damp underneath her, and she realizes she’s been deposited on a beach somewhere. She rolls onto her back, slowly, and stares up at the slate-gray sky. 

She’d been dead. She’s certain of it, though she doesn’t exactly remember the act of _dying_. She remembers that she’d been old, her montrals grown tall and her lekku long, her skin wrinkled and mottled. Ahsoka remembers that she’d passed alone, everyone else she’d once loved having died long before her. But she wasn’t sad. She remembers that, this feeling of lightness as the Force gently plucked her soul from her body and wove it into the fabric that makes up life itself. 

Now, she’s here in this unfamiliar place, wet sand seeping through her thin layer of clothing—a simple shift and the burial shroud she’d wrapped herself in—and cool waves lapping at her bare feet.

Ahsoka sits up and shakes some of the sand off her clothing. 

A golden energy vibrates in the air, shimmering and pulsing. This place is strong with the Force. 

Ahsoka gets to her feet, slowly, and brushes the wet sand off her shift. She pulls the shroud tightly around her shoulders but it doesn’t keep out the cold. 

When she turns and scans for a shelter of some sort, or other inhabitants, she finds none. There are footprints in the sand but they don’t belong to any human or near-human creature. 

Ahsoka starts walking, the ground sinking underfoot as she goes.

***

The Force sings to her, as if the universe is rejoicing in her return. 

Ahsoka must have been sent back for a reason. 

Her old bond with Anakin throbs like a wound, raw, aching. Ahsoka presses a hand against her chest.

“You’re back because he’s dead. It wasn’t his time, so the Force had to reset the balance somehow.”

Ahsoka whirls around to find herself face-to-face with Anakin. But this is not an Anakin that was known to her. This Anakin is older, his hair streaked with gray. His face is unlined and unblemished, free of the scar she’d grown familiar with in his lifetime. 

“Anakin,” Ahsoka murmurs. “How are _you_ here?”

“I’m trapped here,” he says, quirking his mouth in a half-smile. “Punishment for trying to meddle, perhaps.”

“Meddle in what?” Ahsoka asks, coming closer, her shroud dragging in the sand. 

“In trying to manipulate time,” Anakin says. “I went on a quest to see if I could right old wrongs. To repair what I’d broken.”

“And the Force sent you here,” Ahsoka concludes. “Wherever _here_ is.”

“We’re on the island of Ahch-To,” Anakin says, coming to stand beside her. 

Anakin bumps his shoulder into hers and for just a moment, she’s thrown back, to simpler times when he was _Skyguy_ and she was _Snips_. She hadn’t allowed herself to even acknowledge how much she missed those days, before the raging fires of war had burnt and finally consumed them both. 

“Why Ahch-To?” she asks. 

“It’s where Luke came to discover the secrets of the Force,” he says. 

She feels cool metal slide over her hand. When she looks down, she sees the metal fingers of Anakin’s false hand slipping out of the sleeve of his robe to lace with her own. 

“Was he also looking for a way to manipulate time?”

“I believe the answers he was searching for were far more…” Anakin pauses. “Esoteric.”

Ahsoka hums in reply. She gives Anakin’s metal hand a squeeze, even though she knows he can’t quite feel it. Somehow, she finds the contact reassuring.

***

Ahsoka can’t remember the last time she was ever so _hungry_. 

“I’m so hungry I could eat a whole gundark,” she says to Anakin, as they trek through lush undergrowth. 

They’d decided to go exploring the island—Anakin had thought there might be a cave they could use as a temporary shelter, perhaps—but they’ve found next to nothing. The temperature’s been dropping steadily, and Ahsoka’s thin shroud and long shift aren’t enough to keep her warm. 

“We’ll find something to eat. Don’t worry,” he promises her. 

Anakin stops suddenly, then, and Ahsoka crashes into his back.

“What is it?” Ahsoka asks.

Anakin doesn’t respond. He only slips off his robe and drapes it over her shoulders. She’s nearly as tall as him, but he’s still got a few inches of height on her so the robe drags in the mud. It’s warm, though, and it smells like him. Ahsoka wraps herself securely in Anakin’s robe and breathes in his scent. She feels like she’s been transported back to her youth, when they were both practically teenagers being asked to lead armies and wage wars. 

“You looked cold,” is all Anakin says when she raises her eyebrows at him. 

“Thank you, Master,” Ahsoka says.

She isn’t even really thinking about it. It just slips out. It doesn’t bother her though, thinking of Anakin as her master again. It feels natural to follow his lead. She’d missed it. 

As they continue their trek, a thought pops up in Ahsoka’s mind like a balloon.

She reaches out, grabbing Anakin’s hand and tugging him to a stop. 

“Yeah?” Anakin asks, giving her a curious look.

“I know you know _where_ we are, but do you know when we are?” Ahsoka asks. 

Anakin purses his lips, his brow creasing as he thinks. “Honestly, I’m not sure,” he admits. 

Ahsoka squints into the distance. “I think I see some huts,” she says. “There appears to be smoke coming from a chimney of some sort. Maybe whoever lives there can help us. Let’s go.”

Ahsoka grabs Anakin by the hand and they set off in the direction of those huts. 

*** 

It turns out that the huts are part of a small village. The closer they get, the clearer the picture becomes. Island caretakers take part in their daily tasks; Ahsoka notices one beating some rugs with a brush. She sees another through one of the hut’s windows, kneading dough for bread.

And there’s a girl—a young woman, really—training with a familiar blue lightsaber not too far off. 

Ahsoka feels a pull toward her that would have confused and frightened her any other time. Her Force bond with Anakin unraveled at the sight of the girl with the lightsaber, pulled in two directions at once. 

She’s Anakin’s blood. 

“That’s Luke’s daughter,” Anakin says, and Ahsoka can feel the connection to the girl echoing through their bond. 

“Can she—can she see us? Hear us? Interact with us?” Ahsoka asks. “Or are we like ghosts?”

“I’m not sure. This is the first time I’ve come across anyone,” Anakin says.

“I’m going to try and reach out to her.” Ahsoka picks up a long blade of grass and tiptoes closer to the girl.

Luke’s daughter practices her forms, taking careful swings at the craggy cliffside. She seems completely unaware she’s being observed.

Ahsoka holds out the blade of grass and flicks the end of it at the girl’s ear.

“Hey!” She stops, extinguishing her ’saber, and spins around with a scowl. “Master Luke, I…”

The girl falls silent at the sight of Ahsoka.

“You _can_ see us, then,” Ahsoka breathes, almost in awe.

“I’m Rey.” Young Rey thrusts a hand toward Ahsoka. She flicks her eyes to Anakin. “Are you and your…friend guests of Master Luke?”

Ahsoka grasps Rey’s callused hand and squeezes gently. She tosses a glance over her shoulder at Anakin before turning back to Rey. “Anak—Ani is an old friend of Master Luke’s. From the Battle of Yavin.”

Rey’s hazel eyes light up. “Oh! He’ll be so happy to see you. He doesn’t receive many guests. He barely received me,” she says, with a laugh. 

“Rey, who are you talking to?” Luke emerges from the hut, muttering under his breath. 

“They know you,” Rey says, gesturing toward Ahsoka and Anakin. “The older fellow knows you from the Battle of Yavin.”

Luke narrows icy blue eyes at Ahsoka and then Anakin. “Hm,” he says. “Is that so.”

He shuffles closer, maneuvering himself between Ahsoka and Anakin. 

“We’ve been walking for so long,” Anakin speaks up, playing up his age with a weary cough and a sigh. “Might we stay? Just ’til we get our bearings back.” 

“I was just putting a pot of soup on the fire,” Luke huffs, motioning for Anakin and Ahsoka to come into his hut. “Come join us for lunch. We have much to talk about.”


End file.
